Life Sentences by Laura Lippman

Life Sentences was recommended on one of my favorite writer's (Jennifer Weiner's blog). It sounded like a great novel so I decided to check it out.

Cassandra Fallows is a well-known author that has published two best selling memoirs about her life. Her latest attempt was a fiction novel that has fallen flat. Cassandra happens to see a news story where she recognizes a fellow childhood schoolmate, Callie Jenkins. Callie served seven years in jail after she refused to explain the disappearance of her 1-year old son. Cassandra returns home to Baltimore to investigate this mystery in the hopes of writing a new memoir that centers on her childhood with Callie and Callie's subsequent fall from grace. Cassandra discovers that her old childhood friends are not so pleased that they have been immortalized in her previous memoirs. She also discovers new truths about herself and her family.

This novel was a good mystery, but it was mostly a character study. I thought this was a very good, but not excellent, novel. My only negative was that the "mystery" was a bit of a let down at the end.